Culturable heterotrophic bacteria from Potter Cove, Antarctica and their hydrolytic enzymes production

TROPEANO M.; CORIA S.; BERCOVICH A.; MAC CORMACK W.; VAZQUEZ S.

POLAR RESEARCH

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2012 p. 1 - 11

0800-0395

Affiliations of the dominant culturable bacteria isolated from Potter Cove,South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, were investigated together with theirproduction of cold-active hydrolytic enzymes. A total of 189 aerobic heterotrophicbacterial isolates were obtained at 48C and sorted into 63 phylotypesbased on their amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis profiles. Thesequencing of the 16S rRNA genes of representatives from each phylotypeshowed that the isolates belong to the phyla Proteobacteria (classes Alpha- andGamma-proteobacteria), Bacteroidetes (class Flavobacteria), Actinobacteria(class Actinobacteria) and Firmicutes (class Bacilli). The predominant culturablegroup in the site studied belongs to the class Gammaproteobacteria, with65 isolates affiliated to the genus Pseudoalteromonas and 58 to Psychrobacter.Among the 189 isolates screened, producers of amylases (9.5%), pectinases(22.8%), cellulases (14.8%), CM-cellulases (25.4%), xylanases (20.1%) andproteases (44.4%) were detected. More than 25% of the isolates produced atleast one extracellular enzyme, with some of them producing up to six of thetested extracellular enzymatic activities. These results suggest that a highculturable bacterial diversity is present in Potter Cove and that this placerepresents a promising source of biomolecules.